Rob Jung's "Weeping Willow" sculptures. "Weeping Willow's Fractured Heart" is displayed at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Melfort. (robjungsmetalart.com)

By Cam Lee

Local artist featured

Local artist featured during Skills Canada event in Regina

Jun 5, 2025 | 5:01 PM

A man from the northeast was featured at a well-known event highlighting the skilled trades.

Skills Canada recently held their national competition in Regina as students from across the country competed in a variety of skill areas, with the winners moving on to the 48th Worldskills Competition in China in September.

Rob Jung is a metal artist – not the Judas Priest-type, but the makes-art-with-metal type – who displayed some of his artwork at Skills Canada after being invited by Lincoln Electric Canada.

Jung saw some artwork using metal online about a decade ago and became interested in doing that full-time.

“I did some small things and people liked it, then progressed to larger items and more people liked it,” Jung told northeastNOW. “Then I was asked to create the sculpture that’s at the Melfort Meditation Garden in the cemetery and once I made that full-sized sculpture, I think it kind of took off.”

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Jung’s “Weeping Willow” sculpture at the cemetery has certainly turned heads and evoked many emotions, and that was the case when the piece was displayed at Skills Canada. Jung said he has never formally displayed his art anywhere before and he called it “an amazing opportunity.”

According to Jung, the students taking part in Skills Canada and others attending the event were very interested in “Willow”.

Jung (left) displaying his “Weeping Willow” sculpture at Skills Canada in Regina. (Rob Jung’s MetalArt/Facebook)

“There were little kids that were excited about the sculpture and got their pictures with it, there [were] adults that were walking by that couldn’t believe it wasn’t a real person,” said Jung. “Some people came by and looked at it and cried, just from the connection, I guess. It was amazing.”

There was a try-a-trade program at Skills Canada, and Jung said in the welding section children could come and do a weld to take home to show their parents. Jung called Skills Canada “unreal” and said the event promotes trades to both secondary and post-secondary groups.

Jung tries to make art that connects with people emotionally, and he said he makes the smaller items to also have a connection to his larger projects to give people a piece of the meaning.

Jung is from Melfort but now works out of his shop in Hudson Bay, and said he has a large work area and his own personal art gallery that not only features his art, but that of artists in a variety of other mediums like painting and wood burning.

Anyone looking to order an item or to purchase one of his pieces can message him through his website or on his social media pages.

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cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com